Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would continue considering whether to grant review in PLF’s important Endangered Species Act case known as Markle v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. In 2012, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 1,500 acres of land in Louisiana as a “critical habitat” for the rare dusky gopher frog. This includes land owned by our client, business owner Ed Poitevent. The trouble is, this frog species has not lived anywhere near Ed’s land in more than 50 years. Nor is his land even suitable for the frog. The Service even admitted the frog could never live on Ed’s land without serious changes to the property, changes Ed and his family would never make.
That doesn’t matter to the feds. They want to control Ed’s property and now they do, barring Supreme Court intervention. Because under the Endangered Species Act, the critical habitat designation prevents Ed and his fellow landowners from using their own land as they wish in the future without permission from the Fish & Wildlife Service.
Pacific Legal Foundation has been fighting for Ed and his family’s business, Markle Interests, LLC, since the very beginning, when the feds first forced their way onto his property with their bogus designation. When the case began, the Hannity program featured our client’s story and the case. That video is worth watching again as we wait for the Supreme Court’s decision. Here it is:
The High Court will consider the case this Friday, and we should learn soon thereafter if they will hear this important property rights case.